This section contains information on a dew medical recoveries I’ve gone through.  Personally, I wonder how I go so lucky to have these experiences.  I really don’t know.  Genetics is a good guess, but it doesn’t run in the family.

I did get a good quote from one physical therapist – “Rust out or wear out”.  I guess I’m wearing out.

Back Surgery

It now seems that I’ve got more experience with back surgeries than the original knee surgery.

Lumbar Laminectomy 2013

In 2013 I acutely ruptured my L5-S1 disc.  My symptoms included intense pain and muscle weakness.  This means I lost most of the control of my right leg.  Surgery was the only real route and we did it as fast as possible.  Today, 3 years later, I still have some numbness in my right foot and not all of the muscles are 100%.  That said, after the recovery, I rode my bike about 3,500 miles per year and did plenty of offshore fishing.  So, I’d say I got back to a fully functional lifestyle.

More information on my L5-S1 Lumabar Laminectomy in 2013 can be found on the Laminectomy Surgery Page.

Lumbar Laminectomy 2016

This is still a bit in progress.

Starting even late in 2015, I has some numbness and hip pain in my left side.  I woke up in April after a hard 105 mile ride and had a lot of pain.  The pain moved around, but it was disc symptoms for sure.  I tried physical therapy and epidural steroid injections.  April 18th, 2016 I had the back surgery and the protrusion was worse than expected going out the nerve root.  I felt instantly better, but was put on strict orders for no activity.

More information on my L4-L5 Lumabar Laminectomy in 2016 can be found on the L4-L5 Laminectomy Surgery Page.

Knee Surgery – Microfracture

This is the real catalyst for this site.  There are 2 reason that the microfracture inspired this site.  The first is that I heard so many bad stories about the surgery, I wanted to log how it went with the hope it went well.  It did go very well, and now I hope people get inspiration for their own recoveries from it.  The second reason is that I had a lot of time during my microfracture recovery.

More information about my Microfracture surgery in 2007 can be found on the Microfracture Surgery Page.